Sam Brake Guia

An all-star team of nonprofit, blockchain, and crowdfunding veterans, including Roel Wolfert (Bancor, VISA) and Martijn Hekman (World Vision, United Nations), is thrilled to announce the launch of WHIRL, a socially driven crowdfunding platform that’s built on the blockchain. Located at www.whirl.com, WHIRL gives the world a new way to finance their dreams and obligations, while introducing a revolutionary incentive system to encourage giving and maximize campaign success.

Powered by a team of 20 with support from a broad business network, WHIRL launches after years of research and after a year and a half of development with thorough legal vetting as the market’s first credible blockchain-powered consumer crowdfunding platform. WHIRL is co-founded by Roel Wolfert, a pioneer in digital payments, founding member of Liqwith, early adviser to Bancor, and former Senior VP at VISA, and Martijn Hekman, who has led large-scale humanitarian aid efforts across 15 countries, for World Vision, the United Nations, and multiple NGOs.

“Consumer crowdfunding was an original use case for blockchain technology, and today we realize its promise and potential with WHIRL,” says co-founder Roel Wolfert, “But we didn’t stop there. WHIRL is built to unite the world in mutual self-support and create a platform with real social impact that helps people realize their dreams.”

Over the last decade, crowdfunding has stagnated due to oversaturation, fraud, and declining success rates. WHIRL solves these problems by listing a limited number of campaigns at once and by incentivizing backers with a fair and transparent points system, called “Karma.” When you back a campaign on WHIRL you earn Karma. Then when it’s your turn to create a campaign to realise your dream, your Karma determines when it goes live and how much it can raise. This pay it forward feedback loop was inspired by historic community giving pools.

“WHIRL offers a fully realized and disruptive alternative to the bank loans of yesterday,” says co-founder Roel Wolfert, “without taking on debt, you can use it to fund anything: scientific endeavors, art projects, Olympic dreams, education, travel, medical bills, and new business ideas. It is fueled by the mantra that the more you give, the more you receive.”

As a socially driven platform, WHIRL helps individuals raise money for their dreams and obligations without having to beg friends and family for donations, ship gimmicky rewards, or take out expensive and often crippling bank loans. And it will help nonprofit organizations by increasing their exposure and giving them access to an immediate a new source of capital. Every nonprofit approved by WHIRL receives special campaign placement slots, no platform fees, and gifting backers with bonus Karma.

“As someone who’s led global humanitarian relief efforts in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, I know first hand how difficult it is for global nonprofits to receive and distribute aid,” says CEO and co-founder Martijn Hekman, “we built WHIRL to help nonprofits and populations who’ve been left out of the crowdfunding revolution due to their geography and banking conditions.”

WHIRL launches with 3 live campaigns. The first is to fund a performance art and music show by acclaimed artist and provocateur, Sandra Kowalskii. The second is to fund a personal expedition to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro. And third is to fund a unique fantasy video game that lets you wave your phone like a magic wand.

Key Points:

First credible blockchain-powered consumer crowdfunding platform; launches after many years of research, a year and a half of development, and full legal vetting.

Can be used to finance anything, within reason, from scientific endeavors to personal goals to medical bills to new business ventures.

Designed to make every campaign into a success story by listing a limited number of campaigns at once, by incentivizing backing with a points system, and by introducing a fair and transparent campaign queue.

For every dollar-equivalent you spend backing a campaign, you earn 7-20 Karma points. You need to meet a Karma threshold to create a campaign of your own and your Karma balance determines when your campaign goes live and how much it can raise.

Because WHIRL is on the blockchain, it’s a global platform that lets anyone participate regardless of region or banking status. To reach the widest possible audience, WHIRL is also working on accepting fiat currency.

As B.F.Skinner so famously demonstrated, behavior can be shaped and modeled with the right type of incentives. For businesses, encouraging a certain approach or attitude can sometimes be tough. While a simple thank you can go a long way, many businesses realize that it takes a few more steps to really show appreciation, and hold onto true talent that might be looking to jump ship.

“As of 2018, retail gift cards has grown to a $160B market annually in the US. The explosion in gift card growth is due to the challenges in gifting – knowing what a person wants, product details such as size/color/style, and knowing a shipping address,” states Shaul Weisband, Co-Founder, and CMO of Jifiti, a startup redefining retail experiences with unparalleled data & technology consumer financing, eGifting, gift cards and gift registry solutions, according to The Sociable.

Moreover, one of the key factors contributing to market growth is an increasing demand for gift cards in the corporate sector. Corporate houses, in recognition of an employee’s contribution to the firm, are presenting gift cards. This trend has become widely prevalent in recent times with a positive effect on the overall market.

Correlating with this trend is the corporate world’s open approach to wellness incentives for employees, which also works alongside this rise in gift cards. Eighty-five percent of large employers offering health insurance included a wellness program designed to encourage employees to stop smoking, lose weight or take other healthful actions, according to a 2017 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Rewards or incentives to participate vary. The most common are gift cards, fitness trackers or other merchandise, or discounts on what workers pay toward their health insurance coverage.

Other companies have taken to rewarding behavior, much like Skinner’s operant conditioning, encouraging the appraisal of good behavior among staff members. Love2shop, one of the UK’s largest business reward providers recently announced the launch of ‘Shout!’, a social employee recognition platform that improves workplace cultures through values-driven ‘shout outs’. These shout outs can accumulate to points which can be exchanged for non-cash prizes, such as gift cards, to employees who pass a certain threshold of recognition for positive contributions.

Evidently, the flexibility of gift cards has made them an excellent purchase, not only for those in our personal lives but also for those who we want to reward in a more corporate, formal setting.

Disclosure: This article includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company

Bloomio, a blockchain based equity crowdfunding platform that allows investors to fund promising startups in return for tokenized shares, today publishes a comprehensive new report on the state of equity crowdfunding.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the highly-reputed IMD business school and provides a detailed analysis of the key opportunities and barriers to investing in startups, based on a quantitative survey of 700 participants and qualitative interviews with fintech experts and startup founders.

The report provides readers with a variety of original insights into equity crowdfunding. Amongst these, it finds that a significant portion of investment in startups is driven by an ambition to invest in something worthwhile and drive social change.

“Over half of our survey participants say that their main motivation for investing in startups is unrelated to profit, something unique to the startup industry,” said Bloomio CEO Max Lyadvinsky.

In addition, the report outlines several key barriers preventing investment in startups. For retail investors, low awareness of venture capital opportunities represents the primary factor disincentivizing investment, whereas the main blockade for inexperienced investors is a fear of being scammed. A perceived lack of funds available for investment also discourages prospective investors from entering the venture capital arena.

The report also finds that investors with startup experience recognize team performance as one of the most important things to consider prior to injecting funds. Experienced investors additionally have a higher tolerance to risk than those with no experience in startup investment.

Bloomio plans to leverage the report’s findings to enhance its business plan and improve its customer offerings. “The study gives us a far greater understanding of customer needs and concerns, which is crucial for any company looking to drive above-market performance,” said company CEO Lyadvinsky.

Bloomio is a pioneer in equity crowdfunding, a new form of investment which allows large groups of micro-investors to put money into projects in return for shares. The company was founded in 2017 with the objective of disrupting the venture capital industry. That year, the company was named winner of the IMD business school executive startup competition.

Disclosure: This article includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company

As we progress with the new rules and implications surrounding GDPR, numerous industries are still trying to adjust to this new technological world that we have stepped into. For example, marketers and advertisers who use affiliate networks must be aware of the impact of GDPR on their industry.

With this sudden change in privacy laws, affiliate marketers have their own set of questions that they need to answer in order to properly progress. As a recent article from ITProPortal demonstrates, this list of questions is a long and difficult one, however, many startups across the region are proving there is still plenty of opportunity in this industry.

For example, today, Admitad, a world-leading affiliate marketing network, has announced the removal of express payment commission charges for AD1 to AD3 class webmasters from all available currencies and payment systems such as PayPal, WebMoney, and ePayments. The 0% commission rate means that webmasters can withdraw confirmed earnings from their accounts within minutes, saving them the headache of waiting days or weeks to be paid. This new shift will benefit all webmasters, especially those who specialize in the online games industry and generally need to have shorter hold times.

Until recently, webmasters who worked with paid traffic had to deal with slower turnover speeds for their traffic leads, as well as pay a 5% commission fee on any express payment. Due to this, many webmasters using the Admitad CPA Network chose to adhere to the regular, weekly earnings withdrawals, subsequently avoiding fees but requiring them to wait longer for payment. Admitad is currently the only affiliate marketing network that works with express payments. Other networks use a monthly or bi-weekly compensation or reimbursement system.

With the removal of the commission fee, webmasters will be able to reinvest, boost turnover speed and expand advertising campaigns much faster. Webmasters will no longer have to adhere to a certain number of weekly withdrawals to avoid extra charges, and all partners working with paid traffic, including those in the online games industry, will have reduced holding time. The 0% commission charge applies to PayPal, WebMoney, and ePayments.

“We believe that this decision will open up new collaboration opportunities for our partners,” said Anna Gidirim, Head of Publishers at Admitad, “This will encourage more international publishers to join Admitad Networks.”

Admitad was able to remove the commission fee due to the development of their traffic monitoring systems and advanced anti-fraud detection solutions. By being able to track and immediately block suspicious traffic, the process becomes safer and more secure for all parties involved.